Carnival Vista- 11/7 Tuesday, Aruba- Post One
Tuesday, November 7th, Aruba!
We docked in Aruba at 8:15am ship time, but we weren’t in a hurry to get off the ship since our main excursion (snorkeling with Jolly Pirates) didn’t start until 1:30pm local time. In retrospect, I should’ve been the first one off the boat! Aruba was simply breathtaking and I’m already trying to figure out how I can get back sooner rather than later. My all time favorite cruise port has been Cozumel, but I will say that Aruba absolutely is in contention for first place now. We ate breakfast in the lido buffet and found out a tip I’d like to share. Everyone seems to enter the lido buffet space from the pool deck, and hops in line right when they see food, which leads to many long lines. Our fun tip: if you enter the lido deck from the pool side, keep walking to the far back of the buffet space, you’ll find the same exact food but basically no lines!
We got off the ship around 9am, which is 10am Aruba time. From this point forward (until getting back on the ship), times will be listed in local time. I had read several reviews of Aruba stops and people often said that the local transit system, Arubus, was easy to manage and much more affordable than taxis. I was up for an adventure so I took many notes about how to find the bus terminal (frequently stated as people saying “right across the street from the port area”) and was prepared to catch a bus. In reality, the confusion started shortly after getting off the ship where I expected a main street right in front of our face with a clearly visible bus terminal. That’s not the case. Get off the ship and just walk forward, away from the ship. Eventually you will hit the main street, cross that and head right a little bit until you see this big curved open parking lot. I took a few pictures to help people find it (or maybe I’m the only one who struggles with this).
Keep walking on the red route to find the yellow star, which is the ticket hut:
The bus terminal is across the main street from I <3 Aruba and Diamonds Intl:
Bus Terminal area with multiple colored huts (white ticket hut not pictured, but it is to the left of these huts):
We went to a little white hut at the bus terminal and bought passes from an employee working inside. There’s also an electronic machine where I think you can buy passes and reload your passes with more rides, but I went the safe route and talked to a human. We each got a 2-ride card, which is $5 pp (USD). I think a single ride was $2.25 or $2.40, so I know that we “lost” a handful of cents in the deal, but I felt more comfortable using a pass card instead of trying to pay the cash and change on the bus. The employee was very helpful and told us which busses we could take to get to where we needed to go: the “high rise” area of Palm Beach. Bus 10a or 10b will take you there, and the time schedule and map of routes is all listed on Arubus’ website. The bus showed up early and we boarded with no issues. It took off exactly at 10:27am as listed. I would very much recommend using the bus system to travel, as I feel like it was pretty easy to navigate and if you bring a print out or screenshot of your route, people are willing to help you get to your stop. Navigating the bus system will also add a whole different adventure to your time in Aruba and show you some cool parts about their culture!
Arubus 10b route, goes north from the bus terminal up to Palm Beach:
After a ~15 minute ride, we got off near the Marriott and were able to walk on the sidewalks and found a path to the beach. Let me tell you, this beach is one of the best I’ve ever been on. I know that Palm Beach isn’t as well respected and renowned at Eagle Beach (straight south of Palm Beach) but dang, the sand was beautiful and the water was indescribable. If the sun wasn’t completely brutal, I could’ve sat on that beach all day. My husband found a beach chair and sat under a palapa while I wandered and took pictures, before heading to the palapa and reading for a bit. We stayed for about an hour before trekking south on the beach to find Moomba Beach Bar, as that’s where our tour (Jolly Pirates snorkeling) would be meeting. We had a pretty hard time finding it because there was a LOT of advertising for shore excursions, including ours, but nothing seemed to really look clearly like our meeting spot.
Palm Beach. The photo really doesn't do the water justice!
Look at that water!! Almost looks like I photoshopped myself there- promise it's not or I'd be more tan and actually smiling:
Discovered that my sneaky husband snapped this of me walking towards Carlitos:
We kept walking and found the beach bar I had planned to eat at- Carlitos. I had written that it’s right on the beach neat the Pelican Dining pier, but it’s actually a handful of steps back off of a little wooden walkway. Carlitos has good drink specials (2 for $10) but not a whole lot of food choices that sounded exciting to me. We both still found food that we wanted and left very full. We encountered a lot of wildlife crawling around, including birds, anoles, and a fairly large iguana. There was a patron that seemed pretty terrified of the iguana and was curled up in her seat for most of the meal.
Carlito's Sports Beach Bar:
Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to ask people for photos of both of us together (not sure why we didn't use the selfie stick though...)
Lime Shirt!
UP NEXT: Aruba, continued
LINK: Aruba continuation
We docked in Aruba at 8:15am ship time, but we weren’t in a hurry to get off the ship since our main excursion (snorkeling with Jolly Pirates) didn’t start until 1:30pm local time. In retrospect, I should’ve been the first one off the boat! Aruba was simply breathtaking and I’m already trying to figure out how I can get back sooner rather than later. My all time favorite cruise port has been Cozumel, but I will say that Aruba absolutely is in contention for first place now. We ate breakfast in the lido buffet and found out a tip I’d like to share. Everyone seems to enter the lido buffet space from the pool deck, and hops in line right when they see food, which leads to many long lines. Our fun tip: if you enter the lido deck from the pool side, keep walking to the far back of the buffet space, you’ll find the same exact food but basically no lines!
We got off the ship around 9am, which is 10am Aruba time. From this point forward (until getting back on the ship), times will be listed in local time. I had read several reviews of Aruba stops and people often said that the local transit system, Arubus, was easy to manage and much more affordable than taxis. I was up for an adventure so I took many notes about how to find the bus terminal (frequently stated as people saying “right across the street from the port area”) and was prepared to catch a bus. In reality, the confusion started shortly after getting off the ship where I expected a main street right in front of our face with a clearly visible bus terminal. That’s not the case. Get off the ship and just walk forward, away from the ship. Eventually you will hit the main street, cross that and head right a little bit until you see this big curved open parking lot. I took a few pictures to help people find it (or maybe I’m the only one who struggles with this).
Keep walking on the red route to find the yellow star, which is the ticket hut:
The bus terminal is across the main street from I <3 Aruba and Diamonds Intl:
Bus Terminal area with multiple colored huts (white ticket hut not pictured, but it is to the left of these huts):
We went to a little white hut at the bus terminal and bought passes from an employee working inside. There’s also an electronic machine where I think you can buy passes and reload your passes with more rides, but I went the safe route and talked to a human. We each got a 2-ride card, which is $5 pp (USD). I think a single ride was $2.25 or $2.40, so I know that we “lost” a handful of cents in the deal, but I felt more comfortable using a pass card instead of trying to pay the cash and change on the bus. The employee was very helpful and told us which busses we could take to get to where we needed to go: the “high rise” area of Palm Beach. Bus 10a or 10b will take you there, and the time schedule and map of routes is all listed on Arubus’ website. The bus showed up early and we boarded with no issues. It took off exactly at 10:27am as listed. I would very much recommend using the bus system to travel, as I feel like it was pretty easy to navigate and if you bring a print out or screenshot of your route, people are willing to help you get to your stop. Navigating the bus system will also add a whole different adventure to your time in Aruba and show you some cool parts about their culture!
Arubus 10b route, goes north from the bus terminal up to Palm Beach:
After a ~15 minute ride, we got off near the Marriott and were able to walk on the sidewalks and found a path to the beach. Let me tell you, this beach is one of the best I’ve ever been on. I know that Palm Beach isn’t as well respected and renowned at Eagle Beach (straight south of Palm Beach) but dang, the sand was beautiful and the water was indescribable. If the sun wasn’t completely brutal, I could’ve sat on that beach all day. My husband found a beach chair and sat under a palapa while I wandered and took pictures, before heading to the palapa and reading for a bit. We stayed for about an hour before trekking south on the beach to find Moomba Beach Bar, as that’s where our tour (Jolly Pirates snorkeling) would be meeting. We had a pretty hard time finding it because there was a LOT of advertising for shore excursions, including ours, but nothing seemed to really look clearly like our meeting spot.
Palm Beach. The photo really doesn't do the water justice!
Look at that water!! Almost looks like I photoshopped myself there- promise it's not or I'd be more tan and actually smiling:
Discovered that my sneaky husband snapped this of me walking towards Carlitos:
We kept walking and found the beach bar I had planned to eat at- Carlitos. I had written that it’s right on the beach neat the Pelican Dining pier, but it’s actually a handful of steps back off of a little wooden walkway. Carlitos has good drink specials (2 for $10) but not a whole lot of food choices that sounded exciting to me. We both still found food that we wanted and left very full. We encountered a lot of wildlife crawling around, including birds, anoles, and a fairly large iguana. There was a patron that seemed pretty terrified of the iguana and was curled up in her seat for most of the meal.
Carlito's Sports Beach Bar:
Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to ask people for photos of both of us together (not sure why we didn't use the selfie stick though...)
Lime Shirt!
UP NEXT: Aruba, continued
LINK: Aruba continuation
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